


I know something now, know something I didn't before

by EponineTheStrange (gallifreyandglowclouds)



Category: Doctor Who RPF
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-14
Updated: 2013-06-14
Packaged: 2017-12-14 23:37:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/842750
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gallifreyandglowclouds/pseuds/EponineTheStrange
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prompt: Arthur ships Matt and Karen like burning. </p><p>(Or, Arthur is Tumblr.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	I know something now, know something I didn't before

It almost hurts for Arthur to watch it now.

It starts with the way Matt looks at Karen, and even when he was with Daisy it definitely crossed the line between friendly and come hither. Karen was with Patrick then, so she didn’t really reciprocate it, but didn’t exactly ward it off either.

“Objectively speaking, he’s hot,” Karen had said when she and Arthur had a private moment on set. “So I don’t mind the attention.”

Oh, but then things got wonderfully complicated, because the news that Karen and Arthur were leaving broke Matt a bit more than he had ever expected, and then Karen broke up with Patrick and Matt broke up with Daisy.

Shit got a bit more real at that point. Not a lot more, because Matt and Karen were still circling their stupidly obvious attraction to each other, and it’s literally driving Arthur crazy.

Then there was Spain – well what was Spain? Spain wasn’t anything, or not anything that either of them would fess up to the next morning, even though there was a love bite on Karen’s neck that the makeup crew probably nearly strangled her for.

“You put that there?” he asks Matt, and nods towards Karen.

Matt shrugs. Arthur rolls his eyes.

He doesn’t really think that it’s his place to say anything to either of them, but here’s the thing – Karen’s going to Los Angeles. That is happening, and Arthur knows it and Matt knows it, and Matt’s frightened about it.

Sometimes, the two of them have boys nights, and this one resulted in a few too many gin and tonics, and then Matt started talking and Arthur wanted to make him stop, but there’s no stopping drunk Matt.

“I mean, I just don’t know how to tell her,” he says, lying on his back. “And I want to. I mean, I don’t want to just send her on her way without letting her know, you know?”

Arthur nods. He wants Matt and Karen to be happy, and he strongly suspects that the best way to achieve that is to get them together. But that’s not really his responsibility.

The night before they fly over to New York to film _The Angels Take Manhattan_ , Karen calls him. It sounds like she’s been drinking.

“I can’t do this,” she slurs.

“Can’t do what?”

“Go to Los Angeles. I’m going to miss Matt too much.” Now, she sounds like she’s going to cry

“You put a down payment on a condo,” Arthur says. “And Matt’s not going to magically disappear as soon as you leave.”

She sniffles. “I just – things are going to be different, you know. And I want him around. I want him around all the time.”

“Someday, you guys should do Macbeth together.”

“Thanks, Arthur.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow at the airport, yeah?” 

“Yeah.”

Well, fuck.

* * *

New York is – well, it’s going away with Matt and Karen, which basically means being the third wheel eighty percent of the time, because Alex kind of disappears (and who blames her, because she probably doesn’t want to hang around with a bunch of thirty-somethings, or twenty-somethings in Karen’s case), so he gets to watch the idiocy up close and personal and without anyone else to point and stare and roll their eyes.

It all starts on their first night there, and they’re sitting in Matt’s hotel room, and there’s a queen sized bed which means that the three of them can sit there and watch television and eat pizza. He looks over at them during Jimmy Fallon, and Karen’s asleep on Matt’s shoulder, and he’s looking at her so tenderly and gently rubbing her shoulder.

Oh, for fucks sake.

“I’m going to go bed,” Arthur whispers, and slides off the bed. “See you both bright and early tomorrow.”

He steps outside of Matt’s hotel room, and makes sure that the door doesn’t slam so that he doesn’t wake Karen up. Then, he leans back against the wall beside the door and swears quietly. So he knows now, knows it for almost certain that they’re both in love with each other, but in about three and a half weeks they’re all going to go their separate ways, and knowing how ridiculously intransigent Matt and Karen can be about things, nothing will happen. Things will nearly happen, or they’ll kiss in a nightclub after the last night of shooting, but everything will be back to normal and weird afterwards.

* * *

(He does a bit of Google-searching that evening, and discovers that the word for what he feels about Matt and Karen is called ‘shipping’. He ‘ships’ them. Also, he feels vaguely soiled for ever having been on Tumblr in the first place.)

* * *

And then there’s the whole thing with the afterword, which he just watches from a little away, but he knows Matt and Karen, and he knows their looks and their body language, and he knows that those tears are not for Amy Pond. And then there’s the fucking forehead kiss. Good grief. If the whole scene wasn’t deserving of reverent silence, he’d probably run up to them and shove their heads together.

He actually doesn’t hear from Matt and Karen that night, because he’s ninety percent sure that they’re having some kind of angsty cuddle in someone’s hotel room, and he’d rather not be present for the angsty cuddling because even if they aren’t actually doing anything explicitly sexual, it’s still really weird.

(Kind of like how when he was in university, he had this one flatmate that spent his life snuggled up on the couch with his girlfriend whispering sweet nothings in her ear, which was cute and all, but no one really wanted to be in there while it was happening.)

Thus, Arthur ends up sitting in the hotel bar with Alex. It’s a nice bar, and he kind of feels like he has to be a grown up around her, which stops him from getting horrifically drunk, which he wants to do because he literally doesn’t know what’s happening after DW is done.

“You’ll land on your feet, Arthur,” Alex says to him, sage as always. “You’ve got that new show on ITV with David, right?”

He nods. “Yeah.”

“You’ll be fine.”

There’s a few minutes of silence where he drinks his scotch and she her wine, and then he decides to see if anyone else sees what he sees Matt and Karen-wise.

“So, Matt and Karen, eh?” Arthur says, because he doesn’t really know how to start a conversation about this.

“It’d be a damn shame if they don’t do something about it before Karen goes,” Alex says. “Then again, Steven did tell Matt that he wasn’t aloud to date Karen, so maybe he assumes that the prohibition is permanent.”

He did know about that. “I think that only goes for when she, or he for that matter, is actually on the show. That’s how Matt interprets it.”

Alex raises her eyebrows at that comment. “Well, they’ll figure it out, I’m sure. Or they won’t. Either way, there isn’t much we can do, eh?”

Good old Alex. She’s like their saner, wiser den mother.

* * *

Well, nothing happens.

Nothing continues to happen all through the summer, as far as Arthur can tell. He realises that he can very efficiently stalk Karen and Matt through social networking sites, and well, they both go a lot of places, but they don’t tend to go to them together. Karen moves to Los Angeles. Matt continues to film DW with Jenna.

Arthur also starts reading fanfiction. This is something he only does when he’s buried in a trailer or a dressing room, and he knows that no one will see him. He wasn’t aware that there was a cadre of people on the internet who are incredibly invested in Karen and Matt’s relationship (well, their-not relationship). Sometimes things get a little bit weird, but the interesting bit is that he finds that people actually have things pretty right up until romantic things start happening.

(Literally, what is wrong with him?)                                                

* * *

smithereens: you heard from Karen lately?

adarvill: yeah, a bit

smithereens: because she doesn’t call me anymore  
smithereens: it makes me sad

adarvill: sorry bro   
adarvill: you still feel the same way you did before she left?

smithereens: yeah  
smithereens: this is why I care that we aren’t talking  
smithereens: because I definitely thought that there were feelings there

smithereens: clearly I was mistaken

adarvill: well that blows

smithereens: do you and her talk about me?

adarvill: the contents of Karen’s and my conversations are classified

smithereens: so the answer is yes

adarvill: …  
adarvill: the answer is maybe

smithereens: what does she say?

adarvill: okay now I’m invoking the friendship rule   
adarvill: wherein I choose which of you not to be an asshole to   
adarvill: and not reveal what we talk about  
adarvill: actually we talk about how weird your face is

smithereens: fuck off

* * *

And then there’s the Nerdist interview with Matt. This is possibly a new low (or maybe high?) wherein Matt admits that he actually misses Karen and that she doesn’t call him anymore.

Arthur’s about to go to bed because he’s exhausted, but then his phone rings. It’s Karen.

“Did you watch that interview that Matt just did?”

“With all respect Karen, I don’t think I’m the person who you should be calling right now.” He sighs, and then asks, “Is it true that the two of you don’t talk any more?”

“Well, yeah. But it takes two to keep a friendship, Arthur, and he’s not been very good at keeping in touch either.”

Arthur rolls his eyes. “Maybe just call? It’s not too late.”

“He’s said something to you about it, hasn’t he?”

“Perhaps.”

“What did he say?”

“I’m not telling you, Karen. For the record, I don’t share our conversations with Matt.”

She makes a really frustrated noise on the other end of the line. “I just – I’m just confused, because we left things in a really awkward place the last time I saw him, and there might be feelings and there might not be and I just can’t figure it out, and I feel like an idiot.”

“Karen, did you guys sleep together at the series 7 premiere?”

“… no.”

“Well, that’s probably good.”

* * *

 

He sort of drops out of orbit with the three of them until Matt comes over to the States to do his newest movie, and then they end up furiously IM-ing a lot.

smithereens: so I’m going to leave the show

adarvill: but you’ve signed on for series eight?

smithereens: but I can unsign

adarvill: but why

smithereens: because like, I have had a lot of fun with jenna and stuff  
smithereens: but I think that I don’t quite love it as much as I did with you and Karen

adarvill: mostly Karen

smithereens: yeah   
smithereens: I never had a crush on you

adarvill: god matt   
adarvill: I thought our torrid affair meant something to you   
adarvill: just kidding

smithereens: just got an email confirming it   
smithereens: steven’s going to write me out at Christmas

adarvill: good luck buddy   
adarvill: what are you doing while you’re not filming

smithereens: wandering around Detroit   
smithereens: but not after nightfall

adarvill: you looked at Karen’s twitter feed lately?

smithereens: nah   
smithereens: I’ve given up a bit in that regard

adarvill: well that’s too bad

smithereens: okay well you can’t lead me on like this   
smithereens: what did she say

adarvill: so she and aislinn are coming over to come see me on broadway

smithereens: oh yeah, how’s that going?

adarvill: it’s fantastic   
adarvill: but karen’s coming to new york  
adarvill: and it’s kind of your guys’ place

smithereens: I may be able to be persuaded to come visit   
smithereens: oh fuck it I’m booking a ticket now   
adarvill: that’s the spirit, matt

 

There is an empty seat beside Aislinn when she and Karen were meant to come and see _Once_ together. It makes him both happy and disappointed, if what he thinks is happening is happening. (Well, maybe she’s just jet-lagged. It would, however, complete his life if she and Matt were together.)

He and Aislinn walk back to her hotel after the show is done, and he decides to ask about Karen and how she’s enjoying the trip.

Aislinn laughs. “I haven’t seen Karen since about four hours after we got here. Matt came to the Adult Swim party, and they started making googly eyes at each other and disappeared.”

Arthur fistpumps, and Aislinn gives him a weird look.

(They get outed while Karen’s back in the UK doing _Guardians of the Galaxy._ Arthur breathes a sigh of relief.) 


End file.
